CLIENT: Washington County, the Cities of West Bend and Hartford, the Villages of Richfield, Slinger, and Jackson, and Economic Development Washington County.

DATES: 2013 to Present

NEED: Located in southeastern Wisconsin just north-west of Milwaukee, Washington County is a rural county with villages and cities ranging from a few hundred to over thirty thousand residents. As industry moves from central city locations, the larger communities in particular have faced common environmental barriers to redevelopment of former industrial sites. The six coalition members—Washington County, Hartford, West Bend, Richfield, Slinger, and Jackson—all face similar challenges.

ROLE: Vandewalle & Associates was hired as part of a consulting team with Stantec, Inc. to assist with the creation and management of the Washington County Site Redevelopment Program (SRP)—the first county-led brownfield coalition in Wisconsin funded through a USEPA brownfields assessment grant.

Vandewalle & Associates also played a key role in developing the Washington County Site Redevelopment Program, including:

Establishing a Site Redevelopment Committee with representation from the coalition partners;

Advancing the project management team of the County, Economic Development Washington County, Stantec, and V&A;

Developing a countywide inventory of brownfield sites using a three-tiered selection process;

Creating a GIS database and project maps and graphics to accompany the countywide inventory of sites;

Conducting public meetings to gather input on community priorities for addressing brownfield considerations;

Developing criteria to score and rank all sites based on environmental conditions, redevelopment potential, and community priorities;

ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Vandewalle & Associates and Stantec prepared a successful $600,000 USEPA Countywide Assessment Grant in 2014, which funded the inventory and prioritization of over 200 sites, initial site assessments, and addresses community impacts from Brownfields. Since that time a second grant was awarded for another $600,000.

Over the next several years V&A will help identify and secure additional sources of funding to address environmental assessment and cleanup needs, prepare redevelopment plans and concepts, and connect developers with sites. The result will be a long-term redevelopment program with measurable positive impacts.